Week 19 – MILITARY SERVICE – Truck Driver Hero
To be heroic is to be Courageous enough to die for something, to be inspirational is to be crazy enough to live a little.
Truck Driver Hero
James A. Lotson, Jr. grew up on St. Simons Island. He did all the usual things boys did on an island including riding his bike and babysitting his little sister. “’Sonny’ pushed me in my stroller to the field.” recalled his sister Amy Lotson Roberts, “I was supposed to cry if someone was coming while he and the other boys snatched watermelons from a nearby field.” Like many youth, Lotson thought about when he would leave the island. He lived in South End but attended Harrington School like his younger sister Amy. In August 1954 James was drafted into the Army. Finally he could be off the island and find adventure. He was stationed in Korea during the Korean War. James was a Private First Class and member of the 43rd Transportation Company (light Truck), 69th Transportation Battalion (Truck) when he became a hero. The citation for his Soldier’s Medal of Honor presented in 1955 tells the story,
At approximately 0900 hours, Private Lotson, a truck driver, observed a fire burning around the gas tank of his vehicle. At this time Private Lotson’s vehicle was parked immediately beside an ammunition storage Quonset and was loaded with 500 rounds of 60-mm mortar ammunition. The ammunition storage Quonset, one of seven similar Quonsets in the immediate vicinity, contained 50 tons of ammunition. Private Lotson immediately tried to extinguish the fire with sand but to no avail. Private Lotson, without regard for his personal safety, entered his vehicle and drove it approximately 100 yards away from the area and then ran for cover. The ammunition on the vehicle then exploded completely destroying the vehicle. Private Lotson’s heroic action, in addition to preventing the loss of approximately 350 tons of ammunition stored in the Quonsets very possibly saved the lives of American soldiers and Korean service personnel working in the vicinity.
A photo treasured by his sister shows General Eisenhower meeting her heroic brother. Lotson left the military in 1957 and moved to New York where he worked for Republic Garbage Company driving garbage truck in New York City. He is buried at Union Memorial Cemetery on St. Simons Island.